Do you know.
What the hardest part is to do when making a boot.By hand.

We are not discussing making boots by hand.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackbkwikn

Do you know the difference between an upper and a lower .
A counter and a last.

Yes, but again not pertinent to this discussion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackbkwikn

Really uninformed you say.....

While you apparently have been involved with making some legendary boots your points after the dropped stitch comment in this thread were uninformed or spectacularly off point. My replies have been spot on with the OP's issue, yours not so much except the most likely accurate dropped stitch observation.

If your notion is to stir the pot and create ill-will against the largest US domestic skate manufacturer you did a good job.

Again, have you ever worked in a factory? One that output at least in the hundreds of items every workday? I have worked in ones that produced thousands a day and enterprises like that are not nimble unless their income depends on it. Riedell is in business to make around 50K boots a year, approximately 200 a day. I doubt you have ever been involved with an effort like that.

Your a complete fool.
I've just installed a a taco press that shoots out 50000 an hour.
American made as well.
I work at a pastry manufacturing company.
I wasnt bashing anyone.
Just laughed at his comment. Cause I know for a fact it doesn't take that long.
Now crawl back under your rock.

My 965 is top-quality and very nice, only I bought mine 1/2 size too small(so they will be listed for sale soon). Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Riedell will stand behind their product, I'm sure of that.

Your a complete fool.
I've just installed a a taco press that shoots out 50000 an hour.
American made as well.
I work at a pastry manufacturing company.
I wasnt bashing anyone.
Just laughed at his comment. Cause I know for a fact it doesn't take that long.
Now crawl back under your rock.

Yep, tacos, skates same thing...

I'm sure the place you work would stop the bearclaw line if someone walked in and wanted a doughnut!

The guy that runs the plant says A, you say B and I'm the "complete" fool?

My 965 is top-quality and very nice, only I bought mine 1/2 size too small(so they will be listed for sale soon). Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Riedell will stand behind their product, I'm sure of that.

No question I overreacted, I'm not worried. I'm sure they will fix it up just fine. It is a great boot for sure.

Besides the annoyance of getting a dud, you have nothing to worry about David. Riedell will make it right.

I was just at the Red Wing facility to get fitted for custom boots last Tuesday. I already loved them, but after walking the floor, seeing how things are done, and talking with the employees, they may be my favorite company. They are in a dying breed of great American craftmanship that has survived the great migration of manufacturing migrating to exploit Asian abused labor.

Riedell are really good people who take pride in what they do, and care about their product. They will take care of you.

Besides the annoyance of getting a dud, you have nothing to worry about David. Riedell will make it right.

I was just at the Red Wing facility to get fitted for custom boots last Tuesday. I already loved them, but after walking the floor, seeing how things are done, and talking with the employees, they may be my favorite company. They are in a dying breed of great American craftmanship that has survived the great migration of manufacturing migrating to exploit Asian abused labor.

Riedell are really good people who take pride in what they do, and care about their product. They will take care of you.

Yes! I agree 1000 percent with everything you said. I have learned a lot since this happened and am not even remotely worried. It really is an amazing company, and quite frankly I am amazed they are still able to make skates this way and maintain profitability. Few thing of this nature are made in the USA today with this kind of quality and craftsmanship.

I will post a picture of the repaird skates, I'm sure they will be gorgeous.

The only thing they could have done better and should have done was sent me a return shipping label. This is the policy of many companies, both ebay and Amazon cover you if seller ships a defective product (seller pays) in most cases.

It was not a lot of money (18.00 bucks), but they should have taken responsibility. And while I regret using the word "fake" in the title (not true), it almost guarantees riedell will see it. Almost all companies nowadays have bots or a paid service that scans for negative word correlations.

If you do a search with "negative product words" (sucks, poor quality, etc.), they have damned few, almost zero. That says a lot! Good job Riedell!

Besides the annoyance of getting a dud, you have nothing to worry about David. Riedell will make it right.

I was just at the Red Wing facility to get fitted for custom boots last Tuesday. I already loved them, but after walking the floor, seeing how things are done, and talking with the employees, they may be my favorite company. They are in a dying breed of great American craftmanship that has survived the great migration of manufacturing migrating to exploit Asian abused labor.

Riedell are really good people who take pride in what they do, and care about their product. They will take care of you.

If I may ask, how much was the custom fit, what did they do, what was the experience like? If they actually made a mold of my weird feet, it would be worth a lot! At least twice the value of my 297's that don't fit well.

If I may ask, how much was the custom fit, what did they do, what was the experience like? If they actually made a mold of my weird feet, it would be worth a lot! At least twice the value of my 297's that don't fit well.

Custom fit Riedells for low-top boots cost $599. If you're already paying for the ColorLab upgrade, it's not that great of a price jump, especially if you are getting one of the higher end boots.

They can do a lot of things to fit those weird feet of yours. I honestly can't believe the price. Google the price of bespoke dress shoes, and then marvel at how low Riedell's price compares to that.

They don't make a custom mold of your feet. For shoe makers, the mold they build shoes around is called a last. Riedell measures your feet, then modifies one of their existing lasts to better fit your feet, and then build the boot around that. So they could start with what you like about your 297's and then customize the fit for your feet.

What was the experience of going to the Riedell plant like? Great. I loved every second I was there. The people definitely deserve the great reputation they have on the interwebs. Their customs guy, Lee, is both competent and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Even the wonderful Riedell people think Lee is exceptional.

It cost a lot for me to go there, but it was one of the best excursions I've ever taken. Especially since I travelled over to see Docsk8 for the second part of that trip. Seeing Fred was even more incredible. I'll write all about my Doc trip on a new thread later. In short, seeing Docsk8's work-shed is like visiting a roller skate museum, yet also witnessing the cutting edge of plate customizing.

To justify the travel costs of actually traveling to Red Wing Minnesota for custom Riedells, you have to look at it like a vacation. To save those travel costs, you can skip going to Minnesota, and either have your local authorized Riedell dealer to measure your feet, or Riedell can walk you through it.

Again, it seems impossible that Riedell is making money on selling full customs. I think it's a customer relations write off for them.

Last edited by arbrock10; July 6th, 2018 at 07:47 PM.
Reason: Left out sentence

Custom fit Riedells for low-top boots cost $599. If you're already paying for the ColorLab upgrade, it's not that great of a price jump, especially if you are getting one of the higher end boots.

They can do a lot of things to fit those weird feet of yours. I honestly can't believe the price. Google the price of bespoke dress shoes, and then marvel at how low Riedell's price compares to that.

They don't make a custom mold of your feet. For shoe makers, the mold they build shoes around is called a last. Riedell measures your feet, then modifies one of their existing lasts to better fit your feet, and then build the boot around that. So they could start with what you like about your 297's and then customize the fit for your feet.

What was the experience of going to the Riedell plant like? Great. I loved every second I was there. The people definitely deserve the great reputation they have on the interwebs. Their customs guy, Lee, is both competent and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Even the wonderful Riedell people think Lee is exceptional.

It cost a lot for me to go there, but it was one of the best excursions I've ever taken. Especially since I travelled over to see Docsk8 for the second part of that trip. Seeing Fred was even more incredible. I'll write all about my Doc trip on a new thread later. In short, seeing Docsk8's work-shed is like visiting a roller skate museum, yet also witnessing the cutting edge of plate customizing.

To justify the travel costs of actually traveling to Red Wing Minnesota for custom Riedells, you have to look at it like a vacation. To save those travel costs, you can skip going to Minnesota, and either have your local authorized Riedell dealer to measure your feet, or Riedell can walk you through it.

Again, it seems impossible that Riedell is making money on selling full customs. I think it's a customer relations write off for them.

Awesome information, thank you so much! I am seriously considering doing this in the not too far future.

First Riedell ignored my requests for status and tracking information. I found my $400.00 boots today in my apartment walkway. Thanks Riedell, I can't help but wonder who would pay if the package was stolen. My first thought is "Assholes!".

So I open the box and find an entirely new pair of skates (I marked the old ones" in a new Riedell box too. So I'm thinking well that's fine, I don't care how they resolved it.

I removed the boots and right out of the box this is what I see (see picture).
So suffice to say this is a level of incompetence that even I didn't even expect. I did not try to pull them out, who know how many are unhooked.

I STILL believe for all practical purposes this sticking is fake, the quality of the rest of the sticking is so poor I just don't see how it could really add anything to the rest of boot. So yes, it's a real stitching, but the tightness, materials used, quality lead me to believe it servers little purpose.

Wow, sorry you are having difficulties. The last time I dealt with a warranty issue was about 25 yrs ago. It was stitching at the eyes that let go. They took care of it quickly and thoroughly. Thats pretty hard to swallow, dude.

Wow, sorry you are having difficulties. The last rime I dealt with a warranty issue was about 25 yrs ago. It was stitching at the eyes that let go. They took care of it quickly and thoroughly. Thats pretty hard to swallow, dude.

I had to get kinda "tough" with them, but they are going to take good care of me, new boots, free color lab, priority paid mail to and back (I insisted!).

Although the truth is the missed stitch is not that big a deal, the others can never come unraveled, they pressed hard between layers of glue and nails.

I might even just glue (keep it out of the way) it and skip the repair, don't want to wait that long. It amounts to the same as one less nail. It's not like the stitching on the rest of the boot that can actually unravel.

So suffice to say this is a level of incompetence that even I didn't even expect.

Most likely the boots (same model, same size) were made by the same person with the same issues one after the other. Notice how the stitching is uneven. Obviously not someone's best day. Both should have been caught by QC.

Quote:

Originally Posted by netplaceus

I STILL believe for all practical purposes this sticking is fake, the quality of the rest of the sticking is so poor I just don't see how it could really add anything to the rest of boot. So yes, it's a real stitching, but the tightness, materials used, quality lead me to believe it servers little purpose.

I have a feeling the stiching serves a purpose. More than all the bazillion nails in the heal of my 265s.

Quote:

Originally Posted by netplaceus

Will see what they say. I'm not happy, would you be?

I'd certainly be unhappy. They should have checked the boots they sent you prior to shipping. If they were on their toes they would have checked from good - to bad - to good all the boots in that run. OBVIOUSLY something went wrong! My bet is there are more with the same problem.

Maybe that's the start and finish point.
Cause its machine done you can't easily tie a knot so they just overrun a stitch and leave it.
That's generally where it comes out.
A dab of glue will keep it secure.
But really not a big issue...

Maybe that's the start and finish point.
Cause its machine done you can't easily tie a knot so they just overrun a stitch and leave it.
That's generally where it comes out.
A dab of glue will keep it secure.
But really not a big issue...

I let them off the hook, dab of glue is just what I did, I rather skate than wait for new boots to be made, and they offered me free color lab too and much more! But I did not take it. They get a solid 10 out of 10 for doing everything possible to make it right.

Here is what they said about the problem and how it works (removed personal information), thought you might find interesting:

Riedell ___________________

Appreciate your response. The outsole on the 965 is both cemented and stitched. The stitching is added mainly for derby because of dragging toes all the time. We make a lot of skates and have for many years that the outsole is only cemented and do not have issues. The stitching on the boot is called Littleway stitching and is very rarely done by any other manufacturers. You do see it on some boat shoes today. What you have on the recent pair is a loose bobbin stitch. If you take the sockliner out of the boot and look up in the toe where that stitch is, there should be a loose loop of thread. If you can get a small hook in there and pull it, it will pull the stitch back into the boot so it is good on the outside. As long as the thread is not cut, it will stay there. If the thread is cut and the end is pulled, it can pull another stitch or two out, but its not like a seed bag that the whole thing comes out like a zipper. I will personally guarantee this boot for as long as you want. I am here to help you with whatever you need.

PS: let me know what you paid for shipping and insurance in sending the first pair back and I will make sure you are compensated for that.

OMG, I found this on youtube. If this is how it was done you can so see how easy it would be to mess up on that part of the boot. Right where he has to slow down and stop, rotate the boot, is where the problem occurs.